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Saturday, 2 August 2008

Beware the Words of Weasels

A rather fun conversation before lunch involved trying to explain various senses of the term “orthodox” which is beginning to do the rounds of some quarters of the communion. Properly, of course, it refers to the Holy Orthodox Churches, whose agreed designation it has been since the 11th Century at least. Now it’s beginning to be used with a slight curl of the upper lip as a badge of rigid right wing conformity to type.

With all such terms, even “Christian” or “Methodist,” you have to ask “who says you’re / they’re one of those?” If the only answer is, “I do, along with my close compadres,” you can be pretty sure you're being sold a pup. Similarly there are words like “revisionist” which seem to play the same role in right wing parlance that “fundamentalist” does in left wing banter. You can pretty much bet your bottom dollar that they are merely hostile name-calling, no more. If you hear them used, you can just ask the person using them to put their brain into gear and try and articulate what or who they really mean, and on what basis.

The only way to stay sane and be courteous is to pass a rigid self-denying ordinance that “I will only use of other people designations they use of themselves.” This could helpfully be supplemented by a simple Bart Simpson Blackboard resolution: “I will not hi-jack other people’s labels to spite my enemies.” If all that came out of this Lambeth were a few people resolving along these lines, that would be grief to the weasels, and joy to the world.

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

RE: "The only way to stay sane and be courteous is to pass a rigid self-denying ordinance that “I will only use of other people designations they use of themselves.” . . . If all that came out of this Lambeth were a few people resolving along these lines, that would be grief to the weasels, and joy to the world."

So -- do you think that your "courteous" designation of those who do not use words as you desire them to as "weasels" is a word that those people would "use of themselves" Bishop Alan?

Post after post after post issues declarations about what all those bad people over there are doing . . . while at the same time doing precisely what you claim that they are doing. It's been a trend for some months now.

Touché Sarah! I'm part of the madness and discourtesy of the world too. Thanks for spotting that.

We have a saying in England — "if the cap fits, wear it." If it doesn't, relax. If you wear it, take it off and relax sometimes. It’s a hypothesis to enable your self-reflective process, no more. Nobody can truly say how well it fits except the Lord, and to a certain extent, you.

There's a wonderful person called Noel Gay who has sometimes comented on this blog, who studies academically the way language is used to build up walls and routines in Christian contexts. I'm fascinated by his work for the light it sheds on hidden corners of what we do in Church, often unreflectively.

One thing I would say I've noticed is that when people start appropriating off the shelf labels about others and their motives, it is in itself, a warning sign that there's namecalling going on really.

We are all accountable to each other, including my anonymous slimy friend who was abusing his blue press tag; But life is for living, and it isn't entirely the set of Perry Mason.

Child of God by adoption and grace, husband of Lucy, father of five, jumped-up vicar (Area Bishop of Buckingham).
Born Edinburgh. Deacon 1979, Priest 1980, Bishop 2003. Cambridge MA, Oxford DPhil — ‘I am a doctor, but not the kind that helps people.’ I trained for ordained ministry at Wycliffe Hall. I have worked in various C of E contexts, urban and suburban, as well as in prison.